Senator Dodd, as Chariman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, clearly disagrees with the activities of many web sites about Blackout Day.
What he doesn’t seem to see well is the symbolism or the real message behind the motive.
The Internet vs the MPAA
SOPA is a flawed bill. It’s a fact people at the MPAA does not get to clearly identify. Wanting control of the Internet by asking the government to bypass the DMCA and be able to shut down sites as they see fit is unjust and unfair. There are no military or national security issues involved in this.
I’m opposed to piracy, but I also don’t want to lose my rights in the Land of the Free simply due to certain commercial purposes.
ICE has already shut down sites that do not have any copyrighted content, but that serve as links to the mentioned material. With SOPA and PIPA, any blog could be shut down because it that does not satify a company’s point of view. The target, according to the bill, are pirates, yet the bill is going to cause tremendous damage to all Internet users at large, whose first amendments rights would not apply.
Now Senator Dodd, via a press release, states: A so-called ‘blackout’ is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals. It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on those who intend to stage this ‘blackout’ to stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy. [http://www.mpaa.org/resources/c4c3712a-7b9f-4be8-bd70-25527d5dfad8.pdf].
Is Senator Dodd asking us, US citizens, to sacrifice our first amendment rights to simply catch foreign movie pirates? Does he think there’s something more important than what we the people call freedom of speech? As CEO of the MPAA, he thinks so without caring for our rights. Our rights are not a gimmick.
Will the MPAA want to control how many times we can use the DVDs we buy or the number of people allowed at homes to watch a movie at once? Well, that sounds like SOPA 3.0 or 4.0 if this bill ever becomes a law.
Many people want jobs, and we thank the film industry for hiring talent in front of and behind the cameras, and for the fun movies it brings, but people do not want to lose their rights. I love movies btw.
What coud happen with SOPA and PIPA
Movie and music companies could make a list of web sites for ISPs to block, therefore creating an Internet Blacklist.
If someone shares links on Facebook to watch movies or listen to music for free, that account could be closed.
If I were to post my thoughts about movie preview and my opinions get to be mostly negative about it, and I decide to embed the preview on my one post, my entire blog could be inaccessible due to an infringement request by a movie company, without even asking. Similar to what happens to YouTube users who get three strikes (I know) and the account gets suspended, the same fate could happen; in other words, even without three strikes, you’re out. The internet address of your blog would enter into the Internet Blacklist, but the IP address (those sets of numbers separated by periods, like 192.168.0.1) would remain intact.
The MPAA shoud concentrate on web sites that have their content illegally. Once a site is shut down, would people share links on Facebook, Twitter and Google knowing it’s no longer accesible? No.
A complete new education about the Internet and how it works plus and a thorough re-evaluation are needed by the ones supporting both bills.
SOPA could be interpreted in many ways. It’s subjective. It’s broad. It’s still based on last-century thinking.
I don’t want to see this post ever: “This post has been removed from Facebook due to copyright violations of the SOPA and PIPA laws.” Or something like the image below. Do you?
I would feel like an online undocumented person if this bill becomes law because I would not be able to blog. How would a company recognize who blogs for fun and who blogs for real? or who blogs because s/he loves to do it? or because one’s a journalist? If both bills become law, I may have to remove pictures and videos of people at cosplay competitions at anime conventions, or of friends and family at parties.
I don’t want SOPA (nor PIPA).
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